Without Nasrec 'unity slate', ANC would be limping, says David Mabuza

09 January 2019 - 13:57 By ZIMASA MATIWANE

The ANC top 6 members hold hands after their election at the 54th ANC elective conference at Nasrec on December 18 2017. They are deputy secretary-general Jesse Duarte, secretary-general Ace Magashule, national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, president Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy president David Mabuza, and treasurer-general Paul Mashatile. Image: Masi Losi

ANC deputy president David Mabuza said on Wednesday that had party members elected leaders from only one faction at the December 2017 Nasrec conference, the ruling party would be "limping" today.

Mabuza suggested that the election of a "unity slate" saved the ANC.

He was fielding questions from reporters in KwaZulu-Natal's Moses Mabhida region, a Jacob Zuma stronghold, where he was mobilising support for Saturday's ANC birthday bash.

Despite being largely seen as a sellout by former president Jacob Zuma's backers after Nkosazana Dlamini –Zuma lost to Cyril Ramaphosa, Mabuza said he only preached unity and felt welcome in the province.

"What prevailed [at the Nasrec conference] is unity. That means branch delegates heard my voice, heard my story that said it looked like this person is making sense.

"Because if we did not go the way we went, probably we will be talking about the ANC that is limping today," he said.

He said the Nasrec outcomes were the will of the branches, the nature of democracy and that it was impossible for him to control the results of a conference of more than 5,000 people.

"But the kind of solution that branches of the ANC came up with, remember they took certain people from this faction and took certain people from the other faction and they matched them. That is their own creation, but the outcome is the combination of both. How people vote we don’t know since in a secret vote, people vote the way they want and finally we see the result. We have to accept the results."

Mabuza said he felt well received in the province despite having been seen as the person who "sold out" at Nasrec.

"KZN is my home, I feel welcome here. People will make stories but not the ordinary people, they will accept any leader of the ANC because they know the ANC.

"Leaders of the ANC will come and go and tomorrow I won't be a leader. I must accept and support that, but unity in the ANC is something that we will work on continuously as it is not a once-off project," he added.

Mabuza was on a door-to-door trail in Howick outside Pietermaritzburg, drumming up support for the ANC manifesto launch to be held on Sunday. He said the ANC had been looking inward for a long time and it was now time to focus on serving the people of South Africa.

"The main problem is housing. Some of the houses have been damaged by rain. We have realised that the pace at which we are moving as the ANC is a bit slow. I spoke to the people, the councillor, the municipality and I will be back in February to check on progress," Mabuza said.